Talk:Illusions of Power (plot)/@comment-4002547-20140715183648
This idea could turn into something really interesting. It shouldn't be the story that introduces the reader to ISM, even though it details the beginning of the organisation. Rather it would be like the Discworld novel "Night Watch", where we see the dusky and somewhat morally ambiguous dawn of an already familiar organisation - except without timetravel involved. Perchance this would also be when the currently* well-established mages make themselves known among wizards and witches in Erifort? Domdal would probably be involved one way or another. They are all mages and since long before TC they've had an informal ISM office by the library and there's an ISM spokesperson among the erils. Not to mention they already have plenty of experience with travelling worlds. Could it be that the first magicians were unusually bookish mages from Domdal who wanted to create a centre of knowledge? *For a given value of "current" The more I think about it the more I like the thought of Yeethana as the "bad guy". It would make her less of a background tool for Yowana and more of a character in her own right. Even with the explicit intent to have loads and loads of characters, some economics have to be considered. Also, I like to polish on already existing characters. Not that time is all that linear when more than one world is involved in anything, but this would take place centuries before TC. Lucifer is probably still deep-frozen with no secondary body to rely on. In his absense devils have nominated themselves as leaders in the meanwhile. I'll have to look up some names from the Christian demonology to decide who the leader ought to be. Note thar dark magician usually means any magic user who has gone antisocial and prefer to live with non-humans. Yeethana was a sourcerer-level mage with ambitions. Rather than just isolating herself with some demons she made a contract with Hell itself and allied with devils. Satan may or may not make a cameo to clarify that he is not a devil. However, I need to know why Yeethana would ally with devils - what's her motivation? And what does it have to do with the creation of ISM? One of the greatest features of the ISM is the portal networks that ties worlds together. Could it be that the modern portal network was adapted and expanded from a project initiated by Yeethana? The Domdal portals are after all usually more along the lines of crude shortcuts for military movement rather than large-scale gateways for commercial transport and there's no way the demon hunters would give up any militarily useful portals to common usage. I think Samira Marion would be the instigator of the ISM project. Zenovia is the rural village witch who'll catch on that something is amiss, and travel to Erifort? With the constellation of Yeethana, Samira and Zenovia I kind of need a token man and a token wizard. Either that or I expand the cast a little with the Noah's Ark rule of thumb: a male and female of each please! Or at least a male and female for both witches and wizards. Zenovia would bring a neighbouring witch (not Lenc, he'll need another teacher since the timeline willl get mucked up otherwise).